Dynamics of Reciprocity and Networks of the Kyrgyz through Bishkek Toi Making

In: Central Asian Affairs
Authors: Cholpon Turdalieva 1 and Rene Provis 2
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  • 1 Professor, Anthropology, American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan
  • 2 PhD, University of New South Wales
Online Publication Date:
14 Apr 2017
Volume/Issue:
Volume 4: Issue 2
Article Type:
Research Article
Page Count:
197–216
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/22142290-00402005
Keywords:
social networking; social solidarity; exclusion; life-cycle celebrations; Bishkek

Important life-cycle events in Kyrgyz society are marked by the staging of large, informal feasting celebrations, known collectively as toi. This article discusses continuity and change in the materiality and spirituality of toi making, specifically in urban Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Organized on a larger scale and with more expenses than elsewhere in the country, Bishkek toi demonstrate material and spiritual reciprocities that are crucial in the reproduction of social solidarity and exclusion, as well as poverty, prestige, and power in the post-socialist context.

In:
Central Asian Affairs
E-ISSN:
2214-2290
Print ISSN:
2214-2282
Publisher:
Brill
Cover Central Asian Affairs
Subjects:
Area Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies
  • 2

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  • 8

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  • 9

     E. Krivets, Islam v Tsentral’noi Azii (Moscow: Lenom, 1999); H. Paksoy, “Tengri in Eurasia,” 2009, http://historicaltextarchive.com; Sergei Polyakov, Everyday Islam: Religion and Tradition in Rural Central Asia (Armonk, ny: M.E. Sharpe, 1992).

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  • 12

     Adeeb Khalid, The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); A. Kubatova, Kyrgyzstandagy dzhadichilik kyimyly (Bishkek: Print-Express, 2013).

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  • 13

     Marshall Sahlins, Stone Age Economics (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1972).
  • 31

     Reeves, “Black Work, Green Money,” 114.
  • 38

     Sahlins, Stone Age Economics, 190.

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